Best Practices for Developing Infrastructure as Code
One of the most critical elements of this trend is Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Unlike traditional IT infrastructure management, modern IaC is fast, developed, and error-free. So what is IaC? What practices to follow to get out most of it? This blog will provide a basic idea of the best practices of IaC.
What is Infrastructure as Code?
Infrastructure as Code is managing and provisioning IT infrastructure using configuration files rather than using physical tools. As it is a zero-touch process, it reduces costs and saves time. It enhances the scalability and availability of the applications. It removes inconsistency and increases performance visibility.
But how to achieve all these facilities? Well, following best practices can bring all the benefits to the door.
Top Four Best Practices of Infrastructure as Code
1. Codify the Infrastructure
IaC is all about Code. Members can use IaC tools like AWS CloudFormation, Chef, Ansible, etc., as their needs. In configuration files, all infrastructure needs to be described. This file is called the single source of truth. This file includes information like what components need to use, how they are connected, and how it is configured. The primary purpose is to deploy quickly and seamlessly.
2. Less Documentation
As IaC code works as documentation, teams do not need to execute additional instructions. Otherwise, the system will get complicated. In the traditional system, developers needed to update the documentation with every update of components. Now, this system has been eliminated as the Code represents the documentation. But in rare cases (like diagrams), developers may need additional documentation.
3. Version Control Management
One of the essential parts is to control the version of the configuration file. In the file, everything is written in Code. Putting all the files under source control can help manage, track, and reconcile all the changes to the codebase. There are source control tools like Git, Mercurial, Subversion, etc., to maintain version control easily.
4. CI/CD, Testing
Did you know about the easiest way to manage the changes? Adopt continuous testing, integration, and deployment process. Continuous testing (unit, regression, integration, etc.) ensures error-free configurations. Automation speeds up the testing process. CI provision the configuration templates to production-like environments. Successful integration means the infrastructure is ready to deploy to production.
Businesses are focusing more on effective IaC to ensure consistency, speed, scalability, availability, and many more. By following the above best practices can help businesses to get the most out of Infrastructure as Code.
